Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2005 / iii / Paper 41 / 2

Write $a$ for the scalar intercept denoted $\mu$ in the question, to distinguish it from the individual means ${\mu }_i$. The log-likelihood of the independent Poisson observations isDifferentiating gives the score equations for an interior maximum-likelihood estimator:In particular, when $m={\sum }_i{y}_i>0$,The left side is a weighted covariate mean whose derivative is its weighted variance, so it is strictly increasing when the covariates are not all equal. An interior solution is unique if the observed count-weighted mean is strictly between the smallest and largest covariates. At an extreme it may require a limiting slope, and if all counts are zero the maximum occurs as $a\to -\infty$, rather than at finite parameters. Constant covariates make the slope and intercept unidentifiable.

Put $S_j={\sum }_i{x}_i^j{\mu }_i$. The negative Hessian matrix is deterministic at given parameters and is also the Fisher information matrix:Under the usual interior, increasing-information regularity for asymptotic normality of a maximum likelihood estimator, replace the unknown means by their fitted values and read the lower-right entry:Equivalently, Poisson slope information after eliminating an intercept is ${\sum }_i{\mu }_i(x_i-{\bar{x}}_{\mu }{)}^2$, with ${\bar{x}}_{\mu }=S_1/S_0$. This explains both the positive denominator for varying covariates and the loss of slope information when their spread is small.

The Poisson deviance compares the fitted Poisson regression with a saturated statistical model:using $0\log 0=0$. If the usual deviance goodness-of-fit test approximation is adequate, compare $27.2$ with a chi-squared distribution on $29$ statistical degrees of freedom. Its upper-tail p-value is about $0.561$, and $D/29=0.938$. There is no detected lack of fit or evidence of substantial overdispersion from this deviance. This neither proves the Poisson regression correct nor establishes that the slope is nonzero. Small expected counts, dependence or inadequate covariate specification can undermine the reference approximation, so deviance residuals and other regression diagnostics still matter.

The Wald test of $H_0:\beta =0$ useswith an approximate standard normal distribution under the null. Its two-sided p-value is $0.403$, and the approximate $95\%$ Wald confidence interval isThere is no convincing evidence of a covariate effect, and the slope is very imprecisely estimated. The model can fit acceptably while its slope is statistically indistinguishable from zero. In the Poisson regression, a unit covariate increase multiplies the mean by $e^{\beta }$; exponentiating the two interval limits shows how poorly this multiplier is determined on the stated scale. One might compare with an intercept-only model using a likelihood-ratio test, but its numerical deviance difference is not supplied. Failure to reject does not establish no effect.